Dirty Laundry

Something you see on American TV shows but don't really think much about is when a guy starts chatting a girl up in a launderette. It seems cool and American, but until now it's never really occurred to me that the idea of having to leave your apartment with a heavy bag of dirty laundry and sit around in a launderette for half a day, waiting for a cute girl to comment on your colourful sock collection would be a reality of living in America.

Apartments here don't have their own washing machines. Really. Large blocks have a central machine in the basement somewhere, and some expensive new builds will have them in the apartment, but for the vast majority of New Yorkers doing your laundry means schlepping (see earlier post) across the neighborhood like a dirty Santa Claus.

However, what they don't show you on the US shows is that many places now offer a pickup and deliver service (probably because it cuts down flirting to the delivery person, and Friends has already done that).

This innovation turns the whole thing on its head. Suddenly, the worst part of living in the states turns into one of the best.

So a few days ago I gave this a try. I called my local place (200 Dry), a guy arrived at my door 30 minutes later. I handed him a huge bin bag of dirty laundry (I haven't done it for a few weeks, so there was about 10kg of stuff).

The next day I called, and 45 minutes later the same guy was at my door with this bag...

Now this could well be the greatest service I've used yet here. 24 hour turnaround, everything washed and folded, and far more neatly than I ever could. 

I even loved the way they stacked the clothes.

So neat!

Right down the packaging up all my socks into their pairs and elastic banding them together

I know what you're thinking, yes, I really do have a lot of colourful socks.

20lb (10kg) of laundry cost $20 to get done, which is around $8 more than sitting in a launderette for half a day. Now I know my time is cheap, but I'd happily pay $8 for the privilege of getting 25% of my weekend back and not having to lug a heavy bag of my dirties around my hood.

Thanks! indeed.